MCI Acquires Wyndham Jade to Boost U.S. Growth

MCI has announced the acquisition of Dallas, Texas-based Wyndham Jade, an event and travel management company specializing in integrated convention housing and registration, site selection, meeting management, incentive programs and business travel management, serving both associations and corporations

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Reed Business Information agrees to divest several websites and magazines

Reed Business Information (RBI) has announced today that it has agreed to divest personneltoday.com, personneltodayjobs.com, Occupational Health & Wellbeing, whatmedia.co.uk and the Recruitment Advertising Awards, and their associated products, services and events, to DVV Media International Limited, the UK professional publishing division of Rheinishe Post. Terms were not disclosed.

This decision reflects RBI’s continuing strategic priority of focusing on its data and analytics business.

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Relx buys Bepress to boost academic publishing

Relx, the UK-listed information and analytics group, is buying California-based academic publisher Bepress — its third acquisition in the San Francisco Bay area in the past 18 months. Although Relx did not disclose the amount its science and health business Elsevier had paid for the company, which was founded in 1999 by three academics at the University of California, Berkeley, one person briefed on the deal valued the transaction at £100m.

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Saudi investor buys significant stake in the Independent

A Saudi investor has taken a significant stake in the Independent, potentially pumping millions of pounds into the liberal news website but may spark a controversy about the human rights record of the Middle Eastern country. The deal, which was first report by Middle East Eye, could value the Independent at more than £100m

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Handelsblatt acquires majority ownership in German-based Euroforum

London: Informa (LSE: INF.L), the International Exhibitions, Events, Business Intelligence and Academic Publishing Group, today announces the majority acquisition of its German/Swiss domestic conference business Euroforum by leading German media group, Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH. The transaction continues the strategy of portfolio focus within the Knowledge & Networking Division, following on from a number of other portfolio changes over recent years in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Portugal, South Africa and Brazil. It leaves the Division focused on specialist communities in its core end markets of Global Finance, Life Sciences and TMT.

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Clarion’s sale to Blackstone is confirmed

Blackstone Press Release: London, July 24, 2017  – Private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) announce the acquisition of Clarion Events, one of the world’s leading independent events organisers, from private equity funds managed by Providence Equity Partners (“Providence”).

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Comexposium to acquire the group MFV which includes Leading Franchise Events in the US, Mexico, and the UK

Press Release: Comexposium Group today announces the entry into an agreement to acquire the group MFV which includes major Franchise trade shows and conferences in the United States (International Franchise Expo in New York, Franchise Expo West in Los Angeles, Franchise Expo South in Dallas); Franquicias Feria International, the leading annual event in Mexico and The Franchise Show in London. A portfolio of developmental events in Latin America and Europe also are part of the acquisition.

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Next 15 acquires Velocity Partners

Press Release: Next 15, the digital communications group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Velocity Partners Limited (“Velocity”), a B2B digital agency with a focus on technology clients. Velocity was founded by Doug Kessler and Stan Woods in 2000, who will remain in the business following its acquisition. Clients include multi-national technology groups, such as Sprint, Xerox and Informatica. Velocity is based in the UK, however, 70% of its revenues came from US-based clients in financial year ended 30 April 2017

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Cello acquires Advantage Healthcare

Press Release: Cello Group plc (AIM: CLL; “Cello”, the “Group” or the “Company), the healthcare and strategic marketing group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the assets of Advantage Healthcare Inc (“Advantage Healthcare”). The proposed initial consideration for the Acquisition is US$1.5 million, which is payable in cash. Further cash consideration will be paid to the vendors on a dollar for dollar basis to the extent that the acquired net current assets of Advantage Healthcare are over US$0.5 million at the date of completion. In addition, deferred consideration of up to US$3.00 million will be payable in a mix of cash and shares, dependent on financial performance over the period from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2021. This deferred consideration will be paid in a minimum of 75% cash, with the balance in new ordinary shares

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WPP agrees to acquire creative agency group, thjnk AG, in Germany

Press Release: WPP announces that it has agreed to acquire thjnk AG (“thjnk”), a leading independent creative agency group in Germany. Founded in 2012 in Hamburg, with offices in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Munich, Zurich and New York, thjnk is a multi-award winning agency group specialising in advertising, design and corporate publishing. Recently it was named Agency of the Year 2017 by German trade publication Werben & Verkaufen. The agency employs 400 people

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UDG Healthcare acquires Cambridge BioMarketing for US$35m

Press Release: 17 July 2017: UDG Healthcare plc (“the Group”), a leading international healthcare services provider, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Cambridge BioMarketing LLC, a US-based healthcare communications business, for a total consideration of up to $35m.

Cambridge BioMarketing is an industry leader in orphan and rare disease drug launches, a fast-growing area of drug development and commercialisation. The orphan drug and rare disease market is forecasted to grow by a CAGR of 11% between 2017 and 2022 to $209bn, with orphan drugs estimated to account for 21.4% of prescription sales by 20221. Cambridge BioMarketing also has a strong creative and digital function in a market where digital content is becoming increasingly important for pharmaceutical companies.

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UDG acquires Vynamic for upto $32m

Press Release 12 July 2017: UDG Healthcare plc (“the Group”), a leading international healthcare services provider, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Vynamic LLC, a US-based healthcare industry management consulting firm, for a total consideration of up to $32m

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Centaur Media acquires MarketMakers for £13.4m.

Centaur Media has announced the acquisition of MarketMakers, the UK B2B marketing services business, for £13.4m. MarketMakers and its division ReallyB2B consist of “sophisticated” B2B telemarketing, data analytics, database enrichment and automated lead generation businesses.

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